Monthly Archives: August 2012

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Acclaimed filmmaker, author and marketing guru Herschell Gordon Lewis is a contributing writer for the DMA2012 blog. Here, he offers up his take on some of today’s most absurd social media truths. Blunt and downright hilarious, we’re sure you’ll be nodding along as you read through. Join Herschell at DMA2012 for his Pre-Conference workshop, Fast and Furious Creative, on Saturday, 10/13 and Sunday, 10/14!

They ran over my turtle!

Two words that can end friendships, raise blood pressures, and generate more self-proclaimed experts than even politics:

Social media.

Let your memory wander back to those antediluvian days – 2005 will do – when the word “social” actually meant social? Those were gentler, happier times. General Motors, whose Lazarus-like return from the dead wasn’t even on any economist’s Wild Guess List, hadn’t set off a firestorm by defriending Facebook.

Tweet? Well, old-timers still knew these lyrics: “When my Sugar walks down the street / All the little birdies go tweet, tweet, tweet.” And oh, yes, we had the cartoons in which the bird Tweetie Pie tormented Sylvester Pussycat.

Oops. We’re not just years beyond but light-years beyond, and to keep pace “When my Sugar” has to be “When my Splenda.” Sylvester Pussycat has a contemporary incarnation as Friendster Pinterest.

Who qualifies for the corporate position SRM – Social Relationship Manager? Might it be a wedding planner? A Turkish diplomat? The nephew of the company’s CEO? A transplanted Professor of Psychology?

That some marketers have (or are considering) such a semi-executive appointment may be at variance with the basic purpose of direct response: The purpose of a direct response message is to convince the recipient of the message to perform a predetermined positive act as the direct result of exposure to that message.

Social media are two-edged swords. (Note, before reading on – “media” is plural; the singular is “medium.”) They’re gate-openers, and any number of gum-chewing louts use them to attack the marketers who have posted even the most innocuous messages. Conventional media, even emails, don’t lift the toilet seat lid as social media do.

The problem is implicit in the word “social.” Misuse results in puzzled agony, paralleling the complaint, “That driver ran over my turtle.”

Those of us who tread confidently through the response-aware trenches of direct marketing chuckled at a totally obvious report in The Wall Street Journal, which repeated a point we all knew: Facebook’s ad revenue, only big-time investors were told, wasn’t keeping pace with its growth on platforms such as mobile phones, which appear to be less ad-friendly than computers.

Well, yes. That’s about as surprising as three other bits of news: 1) the sun rises in the east, not the southwest; 2) parts are hard to get for a 1947 DeSoto sedan; 3) Millard Fillmore isn’t running for president this year.

We long since should be past the point of temporary blindness caused by the glitz and glamor that underlies the cult of “That which is different equals that which is good.” If the cult had validity we all would be drinking Hadacol and driving deLoreans. (Oops – I once had a deLorean.)

What should matter to the professional direct marketer is that concept we should regard as a truism, stated a few paragraphs back: The purpose of a direct response message is to convince the recipient of the message to perform a predetermined positive act as the direct result of exposure to that message.

If you were unaware of that truism – and it’s unlikely you’d be reading this if you were unaware – copying it and pasting it above your keyboard can add assurance that your marketing messages have at least enough octane to keep the response-meter operational.

I’ll add one more notion to further infuriate social aficionados who have added these comments to their “Burn in hell” list:

Facebook marketers, why should I “like” you? As a shareholder (yes, I picked up fifty shares at the opening price so I could complain legitimately), I don’t like you. As an open-minded potential customer for everything from toothpastes to theme parks, I’d like you if you gave me something of value in exchange for my response, even if that response didn’t include a buy-order.

Get it? Loyalty programs were bribery programs long before social media appeared. But what matters is the dollars-out versus dollars-in ratio. Social now has been around long enough for all practitioners to acknowledge that a cost factor exists, both from a personnel standpoint and from a quid-pro-quo standpoint.

A logical test exercise is to assume your organization has $100,000 to spend on a marketing experiment. Where might you place those dollars to maximize a) response and b) lifetime value? No cheating, now, based on your own fascination with the way your thumbs can misspell almost any legend on your mobile device.

Aaargh. It’s a jungle out there. Webinars and seminars and emails and whatevers fly in almost daily, telling us how this medium or another medium is the Marketing Kingdom of Heaven.

Raise your right hand. Don’t repeat after me, repeat with me: The purpose of a direct response message is to convince the recipient of the message to perform a predetermined positive act as the direct result of exposure to that message.

Recently, we visited the OgilvyOne offices to talk mobile with their Global Head of Mobile, Martin Lange. Martin spoke to us about the power of mobile and how its growth has even begun disrupting other industries, like retail, in a fascinating discussion over the future of mobile. You can find out more from Martin – and his panel of top mobile minds from the Agency world – at one of DMA2012’s most exciting panels: The Future of Mobile Marketing session! But what is Martin most excited to hear about at DMA2012? Watch this video to find out!

We stopped by the SAS office to chat with DMA2012 speaker Suneel Grover, and learned all about meaningful attribution—how close we are to attaining it, which brands have got it down, and the difficulties every marketer faces on the analytics and attribution front. Like what Suneel has to say? Join him at DMA2012, where he will lead our Real-Time Analytics & Attribution Pre-Conference workshop that begins on Saturday, October 13!

In a recent article featured on emarketingandcommerce.com, Director of Consumer Targeting and Append Products at Acxiom, David Danziger, insists that “multidimensional insight”— the descriptive, demographic data like your marital status, income, and lifestyle interests — is a fundamental element of the direct marketing channel, despite an ever-growing belief to the contrary. In today’s new media world, it’s often all to easy to disregard that which is not searchable, clickable, or purchasable online and many marketers are quick to turn a blind eye to seemingly worthless descriptive data. When combined with an individual’s buying clues, however, this offline data becomes an incredibly powerful tool, allowing marketers to deliver more tailored offers and messages to potential customers. Interested in learning more? Check out the entire article HERE. Better yet, join David at the annual DMA2012 Conference & Exhibition this October in Las Vegas! His presentation, “Navigating the Data Maze,” will offer an insightful look at the issues governing traditional and new sources of data and promises to be a sure hit— you don’t want to miss it! REGISTER NOW for DMA2012!

ClickZ.com, the website for expert advice on all things marketing, recently ran a Q&A article featuring DMA2012’s very own Craig Swerdloff. Craig, founder & CEO of LeadSpend, a company dedicated to improving email marketing performance, opens our eyes to the consequences of poor email hygiene— and why it’s so important for marketers to have a smooth operating email database. Click here to learn more about LeadSpend’s email validation solution and the three things your company needs to know to improve message deliverability. Be sure to check out LeadSpend’s official blog, http://leadspend.com/blog, for other email-related tips and tricks. Still feel like you haven’t mastered the world of email lists and databases? No problem! Join Craig at DMA2012, where he will speak about how to do just that!

Bryan Pearson, author of The Loyalty Leap, visited DMA HQ to talk to us about how to make customer loyalty transformative and something that goes beyond a slogan. He has some fascinating things to say about privacy too, he reveals that many people would share even more information, if they received value from it. Privacy remains something that companies must work to get right, but when done the right way, there is tremendous value for both business and consumers. Bryan has loads more where that came from too – and you can hear more at DMA2012 at his Thought Leadership session on Tuesday, October 16.

Catalog Spree, the app that makes shopping & browsing on your iPad practically effortless, is getting a lot of attention these days—and rightfully so. A recent article on mashable.com featured an infographic that Catalog Spree put together to help us understand why tablets are the future of e-commerce. Colorful and (more importantly) comprehendible, the infographic answers questions like, “Who is using the iPad for catalog shopping? Which U.S. cities are driving iPad shopping traffic?” and “How much time and money is spent shopping?” Also included are predictions about the sale of tablets in the future. Read the article and view the infographic here! Or join us in Vegas this October at DMA2012, where Catalog Spree’s very own Joaquin Ruiz will speak about the power of today’s tablet devices.